Roger Dean Exhibition

We have just been to see a Roger Dean exhibition near Fletching in East Sussex. It was wonderful to see so many of his original paintings including his "Badger" painting which is one of Barry's favourites. The original was £29,000 a bit out of my range! So I opted for a print which Roger signed for us & here is a picture of him with Barry and the Badgers.

Verity

On Sunday we went to Ilfracombe and saw the huge bronze statue of Verity by Damien Hurst which dominates the waterside, it is quite amazing and much larger that I had expected, she stands hich on large bronze books of law. A lot of the locals don't like it but it is a great tourist attraction and statement. Damien has a gallery oposite the harbour and you can see a selection of his prints and other items for sale there.

Mevagissey Harbour

On Tuesday we headed down to Cornwall to make the most of the warm weather and I had two lovely long swims before it clouded over. We then went to Mevagissey for coffee & cake to get warmed up! It would have looked stunning if the sun had been shining but the colours of the boats and houses looked very paintable! Must go back ..........

Barry at Wistmans Wood

A recent visit to Wistmans Wood on Dartmoor. This ancient wood of stunted and twisted lichen and moss covered Oak trees many of which are reputed to be 400 years old, stands beside the beautiful West Dart river. Close to this are the remains of one of the largest Bronze age settlements on Dartmmor, so a captivating place to visit.

A walk on Dartmoor

We had a lovely day out on Dartmoor recently making the most of this dry weather. In the morning we went to Wistmans Wood the after a superb meal sitting out in the pretty beer garden of the Elephant's Nest at Horndon we drove to the car park at Lanehead near there and walked up onto the moor past Nattor Down to see Hare Tor and then discovered this fabulous view sitting perched above Tavy Cleave, I am sure this is one of the most stunning views on the moor even if the camera does do do it justice.

Brimstone Butterfly

Suddenly there are loads of butterflies in the garden, Peacocks, Small Tortoiseshells, Red Admiral's, Commas, Fritillaries and several beautiful Brimstones enjoying the runner bean flowers.
Good news about the Sparrow Hawk, he was well enough to be released back to near where we found him and the next evening I saw two Sparrow Hawks flying together, so I hope this is "Harry" reunited with his mate!

Harry the Sparrow Hawk

A few days ago as we were driving home we spotted this poor male Sparrow Hawk lying upside down in the road with a dead dove, we saw it was still alive so stopped and picked it up, it was soaking wet and too injured to leave, its dinner the dove was quite dead and we think they must have been hit by a car. Luckily there was a vet on duty and he looked it over for us and kept it there for the night and as it seems to have nothing broken he rang a wonderful couple Celia and Nigel who care for injured birds and they now have "Harry" as he has been called in their sanctuary where we visited him and I took this photo. You can see one wing is hanging down a little but hopefully he will soon be well enough to be released.